Black Students at Kenyon in the 1970s
It's not an easy sell. A costly rural college with limited scholarship money and an overwhelmingly white student body and faculty…has the odds against it. P.F. Kluge in Alma Mater
During the early 1960s, Kenyon began to experience both high attrition and low enrollment in terms of its black students. Throughout the entire decade, only 4 black students would graduate. While the majority of earlier black students from the 1950s had found Kenyon on their own initiative, toward the late 1960s, the College began to seriously recruit blacks. According to Ruben Pope (K70), the school began to invest more time and money in its football team. Kenyon wanted to revamp the team, and this entailed scouting for prospective players, several of whom were black.
For the first time, Kenyon was admitting black students from the inner city, many of whom had limited prior experience with whites.In 1969, the same year that would see women admitted to the College, a class of 6 blacks enterred as well. Among this group were not only the first black women to attend Kenyon, but the founders of the Kenyon College Black Student Union.
Kenyon's Black Graduates During the 1970's
Eugene Peterson Kenyon Class of 1970 Ruben E. Pope Kenyon Class of 1970 Gary L. Hayes Kenyon Class of 1970 Roland D. Parson Jr. Kenyon Class of 1971 Keith A. O'Donnell Kenyon Class of 1972 Ulysses B. Hammond Kenyon Class of 1973 Barbara J. Johnson Kenyon Class of 1973 Johnnie L. Johnson Kenyon Class of 1973 Doretha S. Leftwood Kenyon Class of 1973 Leantin Bracks Kenyon Class of 1974 Geraldine Coleman-Tucker Kenyon Class of 1974 Patreca Murrell-Cooper Kenyon Class of 1974 Victor F. Dickens Kenyon Class of 1974 Jennie C. Flowers Kenyon Class of 1975
(Please note that other black students attended Kenyon during this period, but did not graduate) Click on the name for each individual student's story.
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